


drop-in advising hours

by fragile_like_china (gumdropsngunshots)



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Humor, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:01:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29796429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gumdropsngunshots/pseuds/fragile_like_china
Summary: Dr. Spider-man. Spider-doctor. Doctor-man. Spidey, PhD.Peter huffs out a breath. He knows he shouldn’t base his college career decision on what’s catchy, but dammit, nothing really rolls off the tongue the way Doc Ock does!
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	drop-in advising hours

“Hey, so what made you want to go for the doctorate?” Peter asks.

Doc Ock yells back at him, probably something along the lines of  _ “I’m going to crush you like the bug you are!” _ but honestly, Peter’s too preoccupied to care about stale threats.

“I mean, I’ve been talking to my advisor,” Peter continues, casually slinging a few webs at Ock’s face, “and she doesn’t know what I should do either. Says it’s something I should figure out on my own, but I dunno. Do you have any regrets?”

He blocks the projectiles easily, but it’s not like Peter expected much out of it. Much like how Peter doesn’t expect much out of his future. 

“I regret not  _ killing you _ when I first had the chance!” Octavius roars, spittle flying and robotic arms swinging.

Peter ducks the first one, redirects the second. The third slams right into him and pins him against a building, which-- you know. Not ideal.

Bystanders scream. One of which--  _ crazy lady, who stops to gape at a supervillain attack?-- _ cries,  _ “Spider-man!” _ and Peter has to peel an arm out of the him-shaped crater to give her a shaky thumbs up. If the wind hadn’t been knocked outta him, he would’ve probably said hi, too.

Hoo boy, is he gonna be feeling this in the morning.

He grips at the claw keeping him down and  _ pulls _ it apart. It’s not the most effective thing, there’s a good bit of resistance, but it’s enough for him to slip out and leap away before arm number four punches clean through the wall, and what would have been his head.

“Oof, somebody’s not gonna be happy about the new window in their office!” Peter quips. “And speaking of offices, did you like your job? Like before the villainy, were you happy with it? Do you think having a higher education opened new doors for you, or would you have been content with just the masters? How quickly did you pay off your debt?”

Octavius screams wordlessly at him. Rude. That gives him so  _ little _ material to work with; shouldn’t he know how mid-battle quips work by now?

The battle doesn’t last much longer than that, property damage getting a little too high for discussion and Peter’s own patience wearing thin. It isn’t like he’d been getting good answers, anyway.

He watches from a lamppost some distance away the flash of lights as the boys in blue attempt to detangle Octavius from his cocoon.

Dr. Spider-man. Spider-doctor. Doctor-man. Spidey, PhD.

He huffs out a breath. He knows he shouldn’t base his college career decision on what’s catchy, but dammit, nothing really rolls off the tongue the way  _ Doc Ock _ does!

“Uh, Spidey?” a bystander asks, snapping him out of his trance. She’s been hanging out on the fringe of the scene, and has probably the thickest Boston accent he’s heard all week. Peter recognizes her as the one who freaked when he got wall-slammed. Probably her first time getting caught in one of his fights, then. Most people are used to him getting tossed around during the evening commute.

“Huh?” he asks. “Need anything, ma’am?”

“Oh!” she says, like she hadn’t been expecting him to answer her. “I was just wondering, uh. During the fight, you seemed to be asking Doctor Octopus questions about, like. College stuff?”

She tilts the end of her sentence up, like it’s a question. Peter starts to wonder if he should be worried about his identity, but really, there are countless people thinking about doctoral programs around this time. Peter Parker is one in a million.

“Yeah,” he settles on. “He’s-- well. He’s still a legitimate doctor, right? And I would ask Dr. Connors, too, but I think he’s still swimming in the sewers as a crocodile in a lab coat, so… Yeah.”

“I think you should do it,” she says. It’s probably the firmest thing she’s said this whole conversation. “I mean, it depends on a lot of things, like money and time management and stuff, but my daughter’s going for the full degree at Campbell, and she loves it.” She pronounces daughter like  _ dwaugh-tah, _ and Peter could listen to her read a phone book.

“And you fix stuff all the time!” she continues. “Like the power grid, when Electro blew it out, and Buzzfeed says you did some chemical stuff to cure the Lizard the first time, right? That’s electrical engineering and chemistry, plus some more science things, probably. You’re smart enough for it, kid. So what’s holding you back?”

“Whoa, Buzzfeed ran an article on me?”

_ “ _ ‘Top 15 Nerds who Will Save Us All,’ yeah.”

“Ouch. Cool, but ouch.”

“It was very complimentary.”

“That’s nice, at least.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

There’s a beat of silence. “Um. I’m kind of broke. So.”

“So you’re not going to go to college? You’re just gonna let that stop you?” she asks. Kind of accusatory, actually, like she’s disappointed in him. They’re talking about doctoral programs, yeah, but other than that, Peter wonders how everyone always seems to know how young he is.

“I mean I would apply to scholarships and stuff, but that’s not a guarantee. And I’m already in debt, so why would I add onto that?”

She presses her lips together in the low light. “Wouldn’t you be making up for it by getting more money with the fancy degree?”

“I guess.”

Peter still doesn’t know. Counting Gwen and Aunt May, there’re three people total voting for more schooling. Counting his bank account, there are thirty thousand frogs that say otherwise.

“Think about it,” she tells him, kind of unnecessarily. Obviously he’s going to think about it. He’s probably going to be thinking about it until he  _ dies.  _ “And, uh. My name’s Maria Dupont. In case we run into each other again.”

“Nice meeting you, Maria,” Peter answers, kind of on autopilot.

She nods at him and leaves. Peter watches her go.

It’s a big city. Despite the e hopes they get a chance to chat again.

The next week he spits coffee all over his laptop.

_ GoFundMe for Spider-Man’s College Debt Goes Viral, _ the article reads.  _ Organizer Maria Dupont says she hopes the beloved NYC icon will “take the freaking check and also a break. Seriously, kid, find me and I’ll get it to you. We all owe you one.” _

Well. He guesses Dr. Spider-man would be a fun name to get used to.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm being graded on this. Literally, we have to write and publish fanfiction as an assignment, and then share our works with the class.


End file.
